SEO mistakes is not a book with 7 seals and basically, every webmaster can implement the basics himself – provided you take enough time and stick to certain basics.
The following article covers the 15 most common mistakes in search engine optimization.
SEO Mistakes To Avoid
If you want to be at the top of Google and the other search engines in the long term, you should pay attention to a few things when optimizing your website.
If you stick to the guidelines and make the most of them, you will be rewarded with a better ranking. On the other hand, Google doesn’t like over-optimized sites and likes to punish them with a massive loss of ranking that is very difficult to improve.
So before you deal with the topic of search engine optimization and start making haphazardly and arbitrarily changes both on-page and off-page, you should get an overview of the following SEO basics.
OnPage SEO: The 15 Most Common Mistakes
Slow website / long loading times:
SEO mistakes # 1: long loading times nobody likes slow internet sites, including search engines. If possible, avoid placing code-scaled and uncompressed images and do not overload your website with thousands of unnecessary scripts.
If possible, activate SEO mistakes the page compression using GZIP or mod_deflate, if your hoster supports these methods. A very useful tool for keeping an eye on the loading times of your website is google PageSpeed-
Following the analysis, you will receive a very detailed evaluation with tips on how you can improve the loading times. In addition, I recommend the analysis with GT Metrix, a free tool to evaluate and optimize the website speed down to the last detail.
Duplicate content / duplicate content:
SEO mistake # 2: duplicate content or near-duplicate content describes the problem that two or more pages from different URLs have the same or almost the same content.
Duplicate content is poison for a good ranking and very often leads to your SEO mistakes website being devalued in the search engines or, in the worst case, filtered out.
The most common cause is that the page can be reached with and without www and thus provides the same content.
You should also never copy content from other sites. In the course of on-page SEO mistakes optimization, duplicate content should always be avoided!
The best way to avoid duplicate content can be found in the article avoiding Duplicate Content.
Too little content / insufficient content:
SEO mistakes # 3: Bad ContentContent is king! An essential focus in website optimization is to provide search engines with meaningful and unique content.
High-quality content binds the user to your website, SEO mistakes increases the length of stay, reduces the bounce rate, and sometimes ensures a significantly better placement in the search results.
The content of your page should offer the user a clear added value that is worth spreading on the Internet (instructions, entertaining pictures or videos, checklists, infographics, etc.).
Add value to your site by linking to trustworthy sources, placing pictures or videos, structuring the text well, and avoiding spelling mistakes. The ratio of content (text) to code should be between 25% and 40%.
Hidden content / hidden texts:
SEO Mistake # 4: Hidden ContentIf there is one thing that the panda hats, it is manipulation such as hidden content that is only visible to bots.
A basic principle in search engine optimization is: don’t hide anything from Google! So-called hidden content,
which is not visible to the user and is only placed to feed search engines with SEO mistakes texts, will sooner or later be punished.
A popular method is, for example, massively placed dropdown elements, the SEO mistakes text content of which is recognized by search engines based on the source code, but is only available to the user when he actively clicks on the element.
White text on a white background or invisible text blocks that are hidden using CSS is really bad … an absolute no-go!
Keyword stuffing:
SEO Mistakes # 5: Keyword StuffingDon’t spam Google and the user with your keywords! With so-called keyword stuffing,
Search terms in the title, the metadata, and the content are repeated at an unnaturally high frequency in order to increase their relevance.
In the early days of search engine optimization, this procedure was still SEO mistakes common practice in order to achieve better rankings for a certain search term – but now it is viewed as manipulation and punished with a ranking in search hit nirvana.
It is completely sufficient if the keyword occurs once in the page title and the meta description and it also makes absolutely no sense if every tenth word in the content consists of your keyword. Write for the user, not the search engine.
Bad or inappropriate KeyWords:
SEO Mistakes # 6: Bad KeywordsKeywords (search terms) is the be-all and end-all of any website optimization and you should be clear in advance about what your site should be found for.
Choose the keywords wisely and make sure that they fit the topic of your site, your service, or your offer! Do not only consider the individual keyword but also related terms and so-called long-term keywords-
So term chains or search phrases that SEO mistakes contain the keyword for which your page should rank. Optimize a single page only for a certain search term and – most importantly: research the most frequent search queries or search volumes for your keyword – because a keyword that nobody searches for will bring you absolutely nothing!
One of the best free keyword research tools is Google’s Keyword Planner, but you’ll need an AdWords account to do this. I also recommend Hypersuggest – an extremely powerful keyword suggested tool.
Missing or insufficient TITLE tag:
SEO Mistakes # 7: Bad Page TitleThe page title has no direct influence on the ranking of the page (it is not a significant ranking factor),
But it plays an important role in the presentation of the page in the search results and is intended to encourage the searcher to visit your website.
The better the page title conveys to the searcher what SEO mistakes he will find on your page and the more appealing it is designed (eg by using a special character),
The higher the probability of a click on exactly your search hit. Each page should have its own, individual page title, which briefly and concisely describes the essential content and contains the main keyword. You can find detailed information about the design of the page title in the article optimal page title </p>
Missing or inadequate META Description:
SEO mistake # 8: Missing META descriptionThe META description is similar to the page title, ie the short description that is displayed in the search hit below the link to your website.
Google now often searches for text excerpts from your page that match the search query and displays them in the search hit instead of the description you have predefined,
But it doesn’t hurt to define the description yourself. Here, too, each page should have its own, individual META description, which contains the main keyword as well as related terms and gives the user a brief and understandable explanation of what he will find on your page.
The META Description should not exceed a maximum length of 160 characters. If you want to know what your search hit looks like in the SERPS, then I recommend this to you SERP preview tool.
Missing or inadequate ALT / TITLE tags for images:
SEO mistake # 9: ALT / TITLE on picture optimizing your website for search engines also means using the options that are not directly visible to the visitor – for example,
The alternative texts and descriptions for images and graphics. The ALT and TITLE tags are ideal for placing relevant terms and information for which your page should rank and also improve the accessibility of your website (the content of your page is read out to blind visitors,
So these are based on meaningful image descriptions instructed since they cannot see them). Avoid keyword spam and instead, try to use meaningful words to describe the picture in such a way that you know what is on it even without being able to see it.
Missing or irrelevant headings:
SEO Mistakes # 10: Irrelevant HeadingsApple shows how it is: Emotional, meaningful headlines that get to the heart of the topic straight away and make you want more! Use headings to give more weight to the main keywords on your page. When evaluating a page,
Google also takes into account the heading hierarchy (H1, H2, H3, …) – use the H1 heading, for example, to place the most important term and only use it once! The other headings (H2, H3, H4, etc.) can also be used several times and should also contain the focus keyword or related terms again and again.
Ideally, your most important keywords appear in the page title, the meta description, and in headings, so that search engines can determine a clear reference to the essential content of your page. By the way, “Welcome to my website” is not a really meaningful heading.
Missing or incorrect canonical tags:
SEO Mistakes # 11: Missing Canonical TagsIf there are several variants of a page on your website, eg through the expansion of search filters, color variants, or the like, then you should define which is the associated main page.
The Canonical Tag (alternatively also called Canonical Link, Canonical URL, URL Canonicalization, or URL normalization ) specifies the unique URL to the content of your page. It is primarily used to use duplicate content on your own page by telling the search engine the preferred or representative URL of the page.
For example, if my blog were accessible with and without www, I could use Canonical Tag to define which of the two URLs is representative. If you can find out more about the subject rel = “canonical”, then I recommend this page from Google Webmaster Support.
Insufficient page maintenance and neglect:
SEO Mistakes # 12: Neglected PagesSimply putting a page online and then not worrying about it is grossly negligent! Feed your page with interesting and, above all, up-to-date content and also maintain the technical structure.
No duplicate page titles or meta descriptions, no dead links, a well-prepared 404 error page, proper 301 redirects, and please, don’t let old pages simply “scramble” (no longer existent images, links, etc.).
If individual pages no longer exist and you want to remove them completely from the index, the best thing to do is to give them the status 410 (Gone),
Because this way Google knows that the page will never be available again. However, if you want to remove an old page because you have created a new page on its topic, then delete them and define a 301 redirect from the old to the new page
Inadequate internal links:
SEO mistake # 13: Inadequate internal linkingTry to link your internal pages as well as possible so that they can be optimally indexed by the search engine crawlers.
Use the opportunity to describe the content of the link briefly and concisely by using the TITLE attribute. It is best to limit yourself to the connection of pages that are directly related to each other because then it also fits with the relevance of the content.
In any case, avoid wild link spam or links to irrelevant content and avoid mass links in the footer, because these are of little relevance in terms of SEO mistakes anyway.
Too high number of outgoing links / Nofollow links:
SEO mistakes# 14: Lots of External LinksTry to limit external (outgoing) links as much as possible. Sources and references to trustworthy sites, of course, are always a hit, but also let the link juice ( link juice ) flow out of your page.
And especially when your site is very weak, the number of external links should be kept as low as possible. To a limited extent, you also have the option of marking links with nofollow, but this should only be used with caution, as it disrupts the flow of links in search engines.
Also, check regularly whether the pages to which you are linking still exist – I recommend Xenu’s Link Sleuth for this with the help of which you can check all internal as well as external links.
Missing Robots.txt
SEO mistakes# 15: Missing robots. text with the help of the robots.txt, you tell the search engine crawlers which pages can and should not be indexed.
This file is not an absolute must, but it should be made available if possible. You use robots.txt to tell the search engines whether there are individual pages or directories on your website that should not be indexed (eg the admin area or links to pages that you only have for friends and acquaintances on the net).
The file is stored in the root directory of your website and should only be used to exclude individual pages. You don’t need to tell Google & Co. what should be indexed, only what should not be indexed.
Missing sitemap.xml
SEO mistakes: Missing sitemapSince Google’s anchorman John Müller recently announced in one of his webmaster Hangouts that a sitemap is not required for small websites of up to 10,000 pages,
I am only listing this point for the sake of completeness. With XML sitemaps you can help Google and the other search engines to understand the structure of your website and index all pages correctly – with a proper link structure and internal linking, however, this is not required.
When you create a sitemap, simply save it under the name sitemap.xml in the root directory of your website – it is usually automatically recognized by the search engines. However, you can also submit them using the Webmaster Tools from Google and Bing.
These were the most common SEO mistakes
You can use free SEO tools to check whether your website still has room for improvement in some of the points mentioned.
I hope that with my overview of the most common mistakes in website optimization I was able to sensitize you to the subject. I deliberately do not go into further detail on the individual points, as this would go beyond the scope of this article. If you have any questions or think something is missing, just leave a comment.
